Chrissy Metz (‘This is Us’): ‘I still feel like I am proving myself in a way’ [EXCLUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEW]

“It’s all about suiting up and showing up for myself, which is difficult, really difficult,” reveals Chrissy Metz in our exclusive webcam interview (watch the video above) about how her role on ‘This is Us’ has affected her. In the NBC family drama, Metz plays Kate Pearson, one of three siblings navigating their way through love and loss.

“I still feel like I am proving myself in a way,” Metz reveals when talking about how the personal impact that this breakout role has had on her, explaining that for her, she has learned how every day it’s about “suiting up and showing up for yourself, as a human being, then you can do that for your character and for you job and for your co-workers. I always took everything personally, like ‘oh my gosh I’m a terrible actress,’” she says. “‘if you just prepare and just stay ready and you’re present and authentic in whatever it is that you’re doing, then it’s going to come across that way, if you can live truthfully.”

“This is Us” has remained a huge hit for NBC this season, resonating with audiences as an emotional tearjerker. The cast are often asked about how the show makes people cry, and why it is so effective in evoking emotional responses in people. “I think people associate crying with a negative connotation, but I think it can be very cathartic,” Metz explains. “It can be a very happy but sad or nostalgic cry, it could be all of these levels of crying and I think because the show really focuses on the human condition as far as not what happens to us but how we react to it and how so many people in our loves are so instrumental and everything is like a ripple effect,” she says. “Then we can understand the plight of inadequacy, or weight issues or illness or death, all of these things that we don’t get a chance to talk about.”

Metz even admits that the show has the same effect on her, from the moment she reads the scripts. “With the Super Bowl episode, [series creator] Dan [Fogelman] texted me and said ‘Chrissy, I’m going to send you the script; does anybody need to come with you to read it because I’m afraid of you reading it by yourself,’ and I’m like ‘I think I’m fine, I’m going to be totally fine.'” she recounts. “The first line, I start crying, and didn’t stop until the last page, and I texted Dan saying ‘you were right!'” she says, laughing as she recalls crying over her phone while texting the show’s creator.

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